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Friday, February 27, 2009

"While cheerleaders in teen movies seem to have the most exciting social lives on the planet, actual cheerleading squads often have to give up 25+ hours a week to practice . . . not to mention going to the actual games to do the cheerleading. It's a huge time commitment, so be 100% sure that you have the time to devote to it."

25+ hours a week, that is more than 5 hours a day if you train 5 days a week. It seems that cheerleaders really have not much of "life" outside training. So if you are spending so much of your time in training, try making it happy times, else it is really not easy to continue on. Jiayou to all cheerleaders out there, I salute you all.

And now that I was reading through my post, I noticed that I achieved my Pop Over on 17th Nov, exactly 1 month after I wished for it, and the same day as I willed it to happen soon. (It is also 1 day after my birthday; maybe it's a birthday wish come true too. hah)

Therefore, I believe that if you want something, just ask and then seek for it. It will not appear or happen out of the blue, it may take some time, and in my case 1 month; so be patient. True, we may not always get what we ask for, but we will NEVER get what we don’t ask for!

P.S: Other than "Ask and you shall receive", "Seek and you shall find", remember the other universal law: "You only receive what you give away". How much you get is how much you are willing to give.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Just went through his webpage, and saw his latest videos. The moment I finished watching, I just had to blog about them. This guy is simply ZAI!!

His name is 八卦, a truely powerful base from Taiwan. I guess I have to say that it really is my honour to be able to base together with him a few times before; the stunt feeling he gives is really simply incredible.

His flyer, 雅伶, in the video is very great too. Did my first ever Hands Full-Around with her.

In him, I saw the neverending spirit to improve. He is one of the best in partner stunting in his country and probably one of the best chinese in the world sometime back already, but he never stop and continue improving himself.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Sometimes when I think to myself, I would ponder,"If only I had started doing gym since young, join dragon boat or something, then I would have had strong muscles, and more importantly a strong heart." It is not regrets, but more of what ifs.

Strength is something that I just do not have now, and my muscle mass was already determined once I stop puberty and growing. I often just daydream to myself how does it feel to be strong, "hmm I imagine..."

People often ask me how do I train? I would always answer them just keep doing and train hard. I always emphasize that basics is important and body conditioning has to be good before you think about doing stunts. I would say start with basics and try hitting the gym to build up the strength at the same time.

It is hard for me to train at times due to time and commitments, and I do not have time to go to the gym often too because of this. Hence for me cheer training begins in my own room. This is where I build up most of my basics and body conditioning work, before I even start hitting the stunts. I spend more time working myself than working on the stunts.

My room...

For those who really want to improve, training does not start at the training ground with your teammates and all. It should start with your ownself. Do not keep doing the stunts blindly, sometimes the fault does not lie in the stunt, but on yourself. Build up your strength and endurance, and when you have them, stunts will start going up. You could actually do it even in the comfort of your own room.

Dumb bells and push up bar

There are many exercises that you can do with a set of dumb bell, such as arnold presses, military press, bicep curls etc. I personally have a set of exercise, people normally do not do in the gym. These exercises are deviced in a way that they are very cheer oriented, such that gym instructors will probably tick you off for doing such unorthodox methods. I do exercise such as "liberty presses" and also "extended squats" which I just thought of and start doing recently. They really proved to be very effective.

Dumb bell I use for "Liberty press" and "Extended squats"

The push up bar is another equipment I invested in. It's original/typical purpose is probably use to do push ups. But another exercise which you can use it for is handstand presses. It allows more leverage for your arms to move, hence working out more. For normal handstands without press, I will try to do it without the wall in my living room.

Push up bars for Handstand press

Handstand training in my living room

So how do I train? Answer is in the comfort of my own home. Cheerleading like other sports, to be good in it, you have to live it as your lifestyle. That's also the way you can help to sustain it. So even before you start asking why the stunt did not go up, ask yourself have you done your part. Training starts at home, not on the mats.

Those who are able to cheer are really fortunate. Trainings can be tough, but isn't that what you wanted? - That is to improve. Grab hold of the chance that came your way, others may not be as fortunate as you.

I must say that I really admire him. For the passion of basketball, this fella can do almost anything. When he just started out, due the the lack of venue to train, he would not mind single-handedly clearing a court full of weeds and trash so that they can have a place to train. Would you do that?

Cheerleaders out there who do not have a venue to train; is it really a lack of venue, or is it a lack of heart to find one? Not everything comes easy all the time, and do not take what you have now for granted.